Veranstaltungsprogramm der VHB Jahrestagung

Firms operate in a business environment influenced by a series of unique external events. A polycrisis commencing first with the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by conflict and an adjoin energy crisis in fast succession changed the framework conditions for firms. This happens while strategic aspects of trade and industrial policy has become debated internationally.

These changes have taken place over a relatively short period, which represents a unique situation for adjustment in firms and their organization. While some these events are predominantly external to firms, a reaction in terms of considering potentials through e.g. digitalization may have been propelled. It accordingly becomes essential to provide research infrastructures to offer precise insight into firm’s adjustments to such sudden needs for change and how this affects employer-employee relations.

This is one purpose of SOEP-LEE2, which comprises employer-employee data based extending SOEP into an employer-employee framing. Other themes covered are cybersecurity, HRM, flexibility, remote work, job security and recruitment bottlenecks in operations of firms. SOEP-LEE2 at the same time allows for research on survey methods comparing employee-first approaches with representative samples of employers. Also, a module attends self-employed to allow for both analysis of self-employed and persons in dependent work.

It thereby consists of the SOEP-LEE2-Core comprising linked employee-employer data, SOEP-LEE2-Self-employed focusing on self-employed and the SOEP-LEE2-Compare constituting a representative sample of employers. The survey is conducted in cooperation between DIW/SOEP Berlin, HSU/IPA Hamburg and infas Institute for Applied Social Science in Bonn.

An extensive body of research has studied the origins of the gender pay gap (GPG), either from a macro-level perspective (e.g., how equality laws reduce the GPG) or a micro-level perspective (e.g., how career choices affect the GPG). However, little is known about the role of firms – the place where pay decisions are made and the foundations for the GPG are laid. Specifically, we examine how Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) shape the gender pay gap in their firms. We integrate upper echelons theory with the literature on the GPG and argue that CEOs have a substantial impact on the pay philosophy and pay decisions of their firms, and thus on the firm-internal GPG. Our examination centers on five CEO characteristics, CEO gender, educational background, intelligence, psychopathy and achievement striving, which impact the gender pay gap in different ways, such as through reward systems or gender equity awareness. We test our hypotheses with a comprehensive and novel panel dataset that encompasses matched employee, firm, and CEO data, covering all but the smallest Finnish firms from 2009 to 2020. In line with expectations, we find a reduced GPG in firms that are led by CEOs with higher level of education, higher intelligence, and a stronger achievement striving motive. We find a higher GPG in firms that are led by CEOs with a higher level of psychopathy. These results are robust to a number of robustness checks. In addition, similar patterns emerge when we examine the role of CEO characteristics for employee promotions.